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Cri-Help Course Report - June 2008
Instructors: Jabar Akbar, Samantha Kitover, Pablo Perea, John Odbert
The June/July five week CDD basic computer class taught at the Cri-Help facility was a success. The disparity of computer abilities among the students presented a benefit to the class in general. There were four dedicated instructors, two on Tuesday and two on Saturday, that gave their best to make sure the students learned each lesson. Communication between the two sets of instructors deemed essential to the success rate and more importantly, served an influential role whereby students envision the need to incorporate computers into their short term and long term life goals.
Twenty-three students initially enrolled into the course. The diversity of the student body was evident with there being slightly greater than twenty year age gaps between the eldest and youngest students. Additionally, the eagerness to learn was a surprise to the instructors despite the ethnic diversity of the students. As the weeks progressed, the class lost almost half (11) of its initial student body. Regardless of the reasons, only three were dropped from the class due to excessive absenteeism.
The course proved challenging to several students who had very limited at best experience with computers and its operation. One such gentleman was so excited about working on the computer and learning its basic functions that he plans to incorporate the aid of a personal home computer in the daily operations of his budding automobile detailing business. For the majority of the class, typing on a computer keyboard proved to be a welcomed challenge. With the use of the “Mavis-Beacon” typing program, the majority of the class quickly became acquainted with the location of particular keys and function keys.
Completion of an outline, title page, and a 500 word essay was part of the graduation requirement. We discovered that the students were confused on how to start or include in their personal essays. As a time saving method, all students were asked to begin their essays by disclosing personal facts, followed by how computers will help enhance their lives and help them achieve specific goals in life. All but a few students wrote their essays by hand prior to typing the final products as encouraged by the course instructors. Everyone was successful in completing their papers but unfortunately the few people that did not type their papers either had limited access outside of the designated course lab time to computers or were so inefficient at typing that they could not complete the task in a timely fashion.
Overall, the students learned a great deal about the basic functionality of the personal computer and the internet. The course instructors observed a sense of pride and increased morale upon completion of the CDD course. The synergistic effect of learning basic computers and positive reinforcement may be explained by the 82% (9 out of 11) sign-up for participation in the Bridge program (sponsored by Antioch University Los Angeles) and 73% (8 out of 11) for the CDD Book Project.
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